NEW WAVE OF TERROR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 12 January 1944, Page 2

NEW WAVE OF TERROR

THOUSANDS OF POLISH VICTIMS MASS MURJDEK BY GERMANS London, Jan. 11. The latest news from Poland shows tens of thousands more Poles as victims of the new phase of German terror which began last October, said the Polish Minister of Home Affairs. M. Anaqzyk, in a broadcast. A total of 617 persons lu.d been publicly executed in Warsaw up to December 10 and 596 had been 'executed in Cracow to December 5, and the same thing is happening throughout Poland, he said. The murder, were carried out under the cruellest conditions and generally in the busiest thoroughfares. The victims’ hands were tied and they were also gagged, because many Poles had shouted “Long Live Poland” before their execution. A few h* urs after the executions notices were stuck on walls announcing the names of e dead hostages and also the names of new hostages with a threat that they would be shot : f anti-German action occurred. There had been an increase in the street manhunts. The Germans were seizing the populations of whole district and deporting them to Germany for forced labor where the danger from the R.A.F. raids was greatest. The new wave of terror, the Minister said, started when the Soviet armies were approaching the Polish frontier. It was meant to be a punishment for the Poles and also to serve to break the Polish resistance and underground action in the rear of the German armies on the eastern front.